In order to extract hydrogen from a hydrogen-containing gas, a hydrogen permeable membrane provided with a layer containing a hydrogen permeable metal has been used. For example, there is known a hydrogen permeable membrane having a five-layer structure in which hydrogen permeable metal coating layers containing palladium (Pd) or the like are provided on both faces of a hydrogen permeable metal base layer made of vanadium (V) or the like via hydrogen permeable intermediate layers made of a ceramic material or the like, respectively (Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-185277 A). In the hydrogen permeable membrane thus constructed, by providing the hydrogen permeable intermediate layers, hydrogen permeability is prevented from deteriorating due to diffusion of a metal coating into the metal base layer.
However, the hydrogen permeable intermediate layers made of the ceramic material as described above allow hydrogen in a molecular state to permeate therethrough. Thus, when hydrogen moves between the hydrogen permeable metal base layer and the hydrogen permeable intermediate layers or between the hydrogen permeable metal coating layers and the hydrogen permeable intermediate layers, a dissociative or recombination reaction of hydrogen is required. This prevents the hydrogen permeation performance in the entire hydrogen permeable membrane from improving.